WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: WHY BAME WOMEN IN LAW MATTER
In the 104 years since the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 opened the legal profession to women, the Common Law system, shaped over eight centuries, has witnessed extraordinary change. Today, women make up more than half of all lawyers in the UK. Yet for many of us, especially women of colour, the journey into law has always been about more than numbers. It has been about visibility, belonging, and the power of representation.
When I was 14 and dreaming of becoming a lawyer, I immersed myself in the stories of every woman of colour in law, real or fictional. I was not searching for perfect mirrors of my own experience. I was searching for voices and for proof that women from every background could shape the law. I idolised Amal Clooney not only for her work as an international barrister, academic, and philanthropist, but because I understood the unseen labour required for women from diverse backgrounds to build careers on the world stage.
My teenage guilty pleasure was binge watching Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder. Not for legal realism, but to watch Olivia Pope and Annalise Keating command space, disrupt narratives, and embody a kind of power I had rarely seen women of colour hold on screen.
Years later, Cornelia Sorabji’s portrait on the United Kingdom Supreme Court walls spoke to my adult self. The first woman to sit Oxford’s Bachelor of Civil Law examinations in 1892, India’s pioneering female lawyer, and one of the first women called to the bar in 1922, she shattered barriers long before the concept of visibility entered the lexicon. Sorabji advocated for purdahnashins, secluded women managing estates under colonial law, and handled over 600 cases despite lacking full court standing. Her legacy is a reminder that our presence in law has always been an act of resistance.
The thread connecting these women, whether real, fictional, historic, or contemporary, is clear. Our visibility, our perspectives, and our participation are reshaping the legal profession.
In law’s fiercely competitive arena, representation ignites ambition.
This year’s UN Commission on the Status of Women theme, Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, underscores a global truth. We need more women of colour as solicitors, barristers, judges, and legal reformers. Yet UK judiciary data reveals persistent gaps. Only 18 per cent of the judiciary identifies as BAME, and women of colour hold fewer than 5 per cent of senior judicial roles as of 2025.
BAME women in law are not simply part of the system. We are transforming it, from firms and chambers to reform commissions, the judiciary, and Parliament.
From fictional powerhouses to trailblazers like Sorabji, visibility matters at every stage of a BAME woman’s legal journey.
This International Women’s Day, ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls means actively amplifying BAME women in law. It means seeking out their stories, mentoring the next generation, and demanding diversity within our chambers, firms, and institutions.
Representation is not just symbolic. It shapes who believes they belong in the law.
Who is your trailblazer?
